Protestant chapel Fuyintang in the old city

Historic photographs taken inside the walled city 老城厢 are painfully few; those with identifiable locations are even fewer. I cannot be 100% sure, but I am convinced the following two images found in the Francis Stafford collections, depicting the protestant chapel Fuyintang 福音堂, are taken in the old city. There were several such chapels in Shanghai, but the one on Sanpailou Road 三牌楼 was accessible from a narrow storefront just like the one of the image. Moreover, the present-day buildings on the street are still 3-story row houses that have been extensively renovated on the outside. Inside the block, a rounded end of the once-elongated church hall still survives.

See these historic photos on the modern map: https://pastvu.com/p/753344 and https://pastvu.com/p/753345.

Shanghai Walled City in 1855. From Lanning & Couling's History of Shanghai.

Tags: 1900s, 1910s, church, francis stafford, fuyintang, investigation, old town, photo, protestantism, shanghai, then and now, 福音堂, 老城厢

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